Well the forces of darkness descend on the city of discovery on Sunday and no-one has any serious expectations of a home win – which probably is a good thing.
After last week’s first half collapse optimism seems all of a sudden to have become a sparse commodity but I think a wee dose of reality will do us no harm at all. Anyone who thought that the McCall “revolution” would be an overnight affair was surely deluding themselves and although I have to confess to targeting 12 points from the first four games at the start of the season my tongue was very much in cheek as I made this foolish prediction on the GLS bus on the way to the game against Hibs.
A realistic points target might well have been three – and we blew that good and proper on the first day of the season. However all is not lost and I’m sure McCall and the players will be keen to make up for the loss of 8 goals in the last two games by getting a result against Rangers. In recent years I’ve always been more confident about getting some sort of result against that half of the infirm and we have pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat from time to time with our 1-0 cup win at Tannadice and 2-0 shock victory at Castle Greyskull in recent seasons coming to mind.
Again I write this near the start of the week and there is no definite news of signings after Marvin Andrews gave us a knock back (and some would say the run-around) last week. Rumours abound of course and I can only echo the views of one regular poster on the message board who is looking forward to the transfer window closing so we can turn our attention away from matters off the pitch and onto it!
After last week’s display it would be easy to call for wholesale changes but I for one can’t see that being McCall’s style – although I can’t for the life of me see Danny Griffin starting the game (so put him down for a sure start!).
The question of the goalkeeping position has been the topic of much discussion on the boards too but I can’t see that dropping Gallacher for a game against one of the infirm and playing Bullock being the smartest move so I fully expect no change there.
Charlie Miller often relishes (or so he says) playing against his old team – and with the chances of Barry Ferguson being off down south before Sunday being sky high then I expect Charlie will be pitched into the game on Sunday afternoon. His introduction last Saturday certainly made a difference in my view as he was able to slow play down and at least attempt to get some passing fluency going.
Up front I wonder whether this might be the chance to see what Scotland can do – he’ll certainly be an unknown quantity to the opposition so he might just be what is needed to pose some threat up front, perhaps partnering McIntyre, whose aerial prowess is an important part of his game.
The hard work though will start with the trip to Livingston on the 13th September and that’s a more likely place than most to start picking up points than on Sunday but I refuse to give up hope (which of course springs eternal) and although I’ll not be so daft as to yet again predict that Easton will score the winner I think a flutter on United to get a result might just be worthwhile!